Early detection of students with mood problems : a feasibility study

![CDATA[Objectives: In view of the alarming rate of youth suicides and limited existing mitigating measures in Hong Kong, this study sought to identify potential kinematics variables associated with mood among local school students and test the measurement agreement between traditional marker-based and markerless motion capturing systems. Methods: 14 primary school students (age range = 8-12) completed the PHQ-9 and PANAS for mood evaluation and underwent a gait analysis that was tracked by both a traditional (Noraxon Myomotion) and a markerless (Kinect) motion capturing system. Results: Some of the participants exhibited mild to moderate distress (PHQ: range = 0-9; mean = 2.5 SD 3.1; PANAS positive affect: range = 11-19; mean = 14.2 SD 2.1; PANAS negative affect: range = 5-18; mean = 11.4 SD 3.7). Even with our small sample size, we found significant correlations between gait and mood. Specifically, we found a medium negative association between PHQ score and arm swing velocity (r=-0.53) and range of motion (r=-0.49). A similar negative association was identified between PANAS negative affect score and arm swing velocity (r=-0.48). Hence, depressed mood was associated with slower and reduced arm swing. The Kinect system demonstrated excellent agreement with the traditional motion capturing system in measuring joint kinematics and angular velocity of joint motion (ICC = 0.979-0.995). Conclusions: The present preliminary study supported the feasibility of using markerless motion capturing system for gait analysis in the screening of students with potential mood problems in a school environment.]]